Kyrgyz ex-president sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia

BISHKEK, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A Kyrgyz military court on Friday sentenced in absentia the country's ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, his brother Janysh Bakiyev and former prime minister Daniyar Usenov to life imprisonment.

Reading out the verdict, presiding judge Damir Onolbekov said that the court found the three guilty on several charges, including massive killing of demonstrators on April 7, 2010.

The court decided to sentence Bakiyev and his brother Janysh, former head of the State Security Service, to life imprisonment, as well as confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for three years.

Usenov was also sentenced to life imprisonment, with the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities deprived for three years. His car, apartment and certain amount of cash will also be confiscated.

The three are wanted internationally by the Kyrgyz authorities. The former president and his brother are believed to be in Belarus, while attempts for their extradition have failed. The location of the former prime minister remains unknown.

Several other high-ranking officials in the Bakiyev administration were also found guilty of complicity in murder or attempted murder, and sentenced to 6 to 25 years in prison on Friday -- three of them in absentia.

On April 7, 2010, a wave of protests against the Bakiyev administration swept across Kyrgyzstan. In a bloody conflict between the demonstrators and law enforcement agencies at the Government House in Bishkek, 87 people were killed and nearly 500 others wounded. Bakiyev then fled the country and an interim government headed by the opposition took over.